Ecuador

Ecuador

We spent the night at the Colombia/Ecuador boarder since there was a really nice church that we wanted to see, we'd also been told not to travel through that part of Colombia during the night (which we ended up doing anyway), so we'd made plans to stay at the border town of Ipiales and cross the next day. We'd been warned that the route we were taking was infamous for bandits and we weren't to travel at night but the bus took 4 hours longer than it was supposed to do we ended up doing part of it at night anyway. There was armed police dotted along the whole road so it must be pretty bad. We slept at a really cheap (but decent) hotel right across from the bus station and in the morning we went to visit the beautiful church, which looks like something out of a fairytale, before making our way to the border. 

The only hiccup was that the idiot taxi driver drove us over the border and dumped us in Ecuador. We then had to walk back over the border and get our passports stamped out of Colombia, all in all though,  a very smooth crossing into Ecuador. 

Our first stop was a small town two hours over the border called Otavalo. If you're lucky enough to be there on a Saturday, which we were, there is a huge market in the middle of the town. We spent the whole of the next day wandering around the market, picking up a few bits and pieces as we went. I could have gone mental in that market, there were so many beautiful things I would have loved to take home with me, but my bag is already overstuffed and weights a tonne. Next time I'm bringing an empty bag! 

Before leaving for Quito the next morning we went for a quick walk around a volcanic lake close by. The walk takes 5-6hours to go all the way around, but we were short of time and genuinely just couldn't be bothered, so we just walked for an hour.    

It was just another short bus ride (love that Ecuador is so small!) to Quito. After checking in, we enquired about where to eat for dinner but were told that because it was Sunday, most places were shut. We ventured out and managed to find the worst Mexican on the planet. We actually felt awful that we left so much on our plates but it really was inedible. I'm pretty shocked that the capital city of Ecuador basically shuts down on a Sunday. 

We got talking to a lovely English girl called Abbie, who was staying in the same dorm as us, and we made plans to go and do the walking tour together the following day. 

We took 'The Death Bus' to downtown Quito where the walking tour would start from. The Death Bus was named such because we almost died trying to get on them.  Three times! We made the mistake of being polite and allowing people to disembark before tying to get on. Oh no no, this is not how it works, it would seem the only way to get onto the bus is to elbow barge your way onto the bus while others are trying to elbow barge their way off, otherwise the doors will unceremoniously slam shut in your face. Three times this happened, three times, before we figured it out. Luckily we'd left ourselves plenty of time to miss three buses and we managed to arrive on time for the tour. 

The tour was really good, one of the better ones we've been on. They've been a bit hit and miss to be honest. We got to see the changing of the guards at the presidential offices which was really cool.  Marching band, soldiers on horseback, the president himself and a lovely rendition of the national anthem. 

After the tour, Abbie, Kay and I went for a cheap set meal type lunch which was very tasty. We then went back to one of the churches that we'd passed on the tour, we were able to get up inside and climb some pretty dodgy ladders to the top of one of the towers, an amazing view of the city from up there though. 

We then took a taxi to the cable car which took us almost 4000 m.a.s.l, the climb took forever and the trio sitting opposite us were a nervous wreck by the time we reached the top. It was quite cloudy up there so we had a hot chocolate to warm us up and waited for the clouds to pass. They eventually did, and we clambered down to some electrical masts, where I'm pretty sure we weren't meant to be, and got some more spectacular views of the city. 

We had a fantastic meal at an Irish bar close to our hostel, Finn McCool's. Shepard's Pie, Fish 'n' chips and chicken and mushroom pie which all tasted like they would have at home. Yum!  

Myself and Kay decided to do some Spanish lessons while we were in Ecuador, it's really cheap and they're supposed to have the clearest Spanish in South America, making it a bit easier to learn. So, the next day, we woke early to do a 3hr lesson at a place not far from our hostel, the first two hours were great and really helpful but I think our brains had turned to mush by the third, and we weren't taking much in during that hour.  After our lesson we met Abbie for a nice set lunch and then we all headed off to the equator.  There are two places to visit the equator near Quito, one is the monument which was built at the point where a french science expedition determined the equator was in 1736, the other is the actual equator line which was determined using army GPS more recently. We decided to give both places a look since they weren't too far from each other. We went to the monument first, it's impressively large and has a long yellow line depicting the equator, which you can stand either side of, a great photo opportunity but it loses it's sparkle a bit because, even though the Ecuador line is 1 mile wide, and so we were on the Ecuador line, we weren't actually at the center of the world.  We walked around to the museum which has recently been built right on the center line. We were shown some experiments here which backed up the GPS coordinates. My favourite was when they showed the water draining clockwise in the northern hemisphere, anti-clockwise in the southern, and it then fell straight down on the equator. We were also shown that you don't have as much strength on the line and your balance is terrible.  We went to the Irish pub for dinner again, 6 months away was making us crave "normal" food. Early night again, I think the altitude was making us sleepy. We vowed to take a nap the next day so that we would have the energy to go out for some drinks in Quito. 

The next morning, after another 2hr spanish lesson, the three of us took 'The death bus' to a park which wasn't too far away. We spent the day sitting in the sun and people watching. That night we put on our finest attire and went out for ladies night. It was a bit of an odd situation, usually the reason behind letting ladies drink for free is that the many many guys who go too, will have to pay for their drinks. This place was different though, they would only allow women into the club between 8-10pm to drink for free and after that the boys were allowed to join us. The drinks were lethal, they were about 80% vodka and 20% mixer. I opted for the cocktails because, quelle surprise, they didn't have any sugar free mixers. 

I woke up feeling surprisingly fresh but poor Kay wasn't so lucky, which is unlike her. We all went over to our beloved Finn McCool's to have a greasy breakfast to soak up the alcohol from the night before. We left Quito that day on a bus headed for a small town called Baños, the windy road was making me feel a bit ill, and with Kay's hangover, I'm sure you can imagine how she felt. We arrived about dinner time and couldn't be bothered looking for anywhere so we went with one of the touts to his hotel, and although it was a little more than we wanted to pay, it was a nice room with two double beds and an ensuite, so we decided to stay one night and look for something cheaper the next day. Pizza and bed for us, we hadn't eaten any Ecuadorian food yet but the hangover wants what the hangover wants. 

The next morning we went for a walk around the town to enquire about the canyoning and also to look at some hostels.  We managed to find only one with availability in our budget, and I was only $2 cheaper so when we got back to our own place I asked if they would give us a discount if we stayed another couple of nights, and they agreed!  We went to have a look at the place where you can do a bridge-swing.  Kay wanted to do it but there was absolutely no convincing me! We took a chiva (multicoloured bus) up to casa de arbol (the tree house) where we got a shot on The Swing at the End of the World. It's not as scary as it looks, but it was still lots of fun. We had to pay $1 to get on the swing and there was a Swiss girl on our bus who almost refused to pay it, I know money can be tight when travelling, but come on, what's $1 when you've already travelled all that way to see it? We took another chiva up to a view point that night, the weather was quite cloudy so, although we got a great view of the city, we couldn't see the volcano at all. We were given a warming alcoholic drink at the top and treated to a comedy show, in Spanish. The guy was hilarious though, and managed to make us laugh even though we couldn't understand what he was saying!

We had booked to go canyoning for the following day, so after a quick breakfast we headed off to the office to get suited and booted for the days activity.  It was myself, Kay and an Ecuadorian couple from Guayaquil. We had to walk up to the top of a small hill but the Ecuadorians were struggling with the altitude since they were from the coast, but weirdly it wasn't affecting Kay or I. We abseiled down 4 waterfalls and got to slide down some smaller ones too, lots and lots of fun but we were all starting to get a bit cold by the end, so I was thankful to get back to our hotel and have a lovely warm shower. We had some time before dinner, so Kay decided it was time to do her bridge-swing, she made one last attempt at convincing me ( no thanks! ), before signing herself up. She had to watch only one other person do it before her, the girl went backwards and was more or less pushed, so Kay decided this would be slightly easier and went that way too! She got some great photos and a video to take home as proof of her bravery! We tried some Cuy (guinea pig) after, our first traditional Ecuadorian meal since we'd arrived in the country.  It was ok, tasted a bit like chicken, but the look of it ( whole guinea pig skewered on a stick) kinda put me off a bit. We had planned to make our way up to the hot springs that night but the two of us were so exhausted from our day, that we went for a nap and didn't wake up.

This guy had rubbish timing....either too slow or too eager!! 

We travelled from Baños to Puerto Lopez via Guayaquil the next day, arriving at night. We hadn't booked anywhere so we let the tuk tuk driver take us to a couple of places i'd read about online, before settling on the first place we saw. 

We were both feeling very tired the next day after our long day of travelling but we walked the two streets that made up the small fishing village and got our bearings. Puerto Lopez was very quiet because their season didn't officially start for another month, when the whales would pass through on their way north. We booked a boat trip for the following day to a 'poor mans Galapagos', we would get the chance to see dolphins, blue-footed boobies, and if we had been there a month later, some humpback whales. We had some delicious sea food for dinner, one of the many perks of being back at the coast. 

We took a boat to Isla de la Plato the next morning and got to see a large pod of dolphins on the way, also, when we stopped close to the island we had a group of giant sea turtles come up to the side of the boat, which was a wonderful sight. We were given the option of two hikes while on the island, the first easier route would take you to the edge of the cliffs where you would get the chance to see many many birds, including the blue-footed boobies, nesting on the side of the cliff, the other, more difficult, route would take you to the top of the island where we would perhaps see some blue-footed boobies up close, and also their nests. We opted for the more difficult route, which turned out to be not so difficult at all.  We took a different way back to Puerto Lopez so we could try and see some whales, and guess what, we were so lucky to get to see two humpback whales not too far of our boat. We weren't expecting this at all since they weren't due to pass through for another month! We went for some lovely Italian food when we got back. 

The next day was glorious so we spent the morning and early afternoon catching some rays before catching a bus to a town further down the coast called Montanita. We checked into our hostel, met our lovely roomies, Stuart and Nelle, and went into town for a look around and some pizza, we haven't eaten much Ecuadorian food so far. 

We spent the day at the beach the next day, the weather was beautiful and there wasn't going to be too much beach time in Peru, and none in Bolivia, so we were making the most of it. We decided to save some pennies and cook for ourselves, we had a couple of rums, watched a film and went to bed.  Very chilled out day. 

Another fabulous beach day, this time joined by Stuart and Nelle.  Our day consisted of sunbathing, eating and a little bit of shopping too.  We made some noises about leaving for Peru the next day but we hadn't packed, or booked a bus, so we decided another day at the beach was in order. 

Long lazy day at the beach, had an unsuccessful search for postcards (the only country we haven't bought any from), and booked our bus to Guayaquil for the next morning. We had a delicious dinner at the hostel, a guy working there was a chef, so for $6 each he made us all a 3 course meal, far too much food, but really yummy.  

We left for Guayaquil early the next morning along with Stuart and Nelle and arrived around 9.30am but, unfortunately, the next bus leaving for Peru wasn't until 2pm so, we had some lunch and had a look around the shops in the bus station, hoping to get some postcards before we left, but no joy.  The bus took about 4 hours to get to the Ecuador/Peru border and we spent about an hour getting through as they were being ridiculously slow with everyone. Back on the bus and onwards to Mancora, a lovely coastal town in north Peru. We arrived late after having to vacate the bus for the police to search the bus and check our passports.  We took a tuk tuk to our hostel, it was a party hostel, which we don't normally book because we would prefer to sleep somewhere quiet and then party when we want to, but it was right across the road from the fully booked hostel that we actually wanted to sleep in.  The party was already in full swing when we arrived but thankfully we were so tired from travelling that we managed to sleep through the noise, with a little help from our earplugs. 

We both really enjoyed our time in Ecuador, there is more indigenous culture to experience than in Colombia, because unfortunately, most of the indigenous population of Colombia were wiped out by the Spanish.  There are beautiful coastal towns and adventure sports galore, what's not to love? I've met too many people on my trip who have, for whatever reason, decided to give Ecuador a miss and head straight to Peru, but in my opinion their making a big mistake, this is a small country but it has a lot to offer. 

 

Colombia

We flew from Panama City to the beautiful Medellin where we took a short taxi ride to our hostel, Arcadia, which is Greek themed and Greek owned. We booked the 12 bed dorm online and were shown to Hades, the appropriate name they had given the hell room down in the basement. Luckily after seeing the horror on our faces, they offered us a much nicer room, Olympus, on the first floor. They had free salsa lessons starting just after we arrived but we had to give it a miss since it was getting late and we hadn't eaten yet. 

The next morning we made our way to a place where we could go paragliding. It was really cheap, only 100k COP which is roughly £25 for half an hour. We had a bit of a faff trying to find an ATM which would accept our cards and so that, coupled with heavy traffic, meant that we arrived at the place in the afternoon. Kay went up first, we had both paid extra to get the use of a GoPro while up there but when she landed, her pilot informed her that the memory card was faulty and that no pictures had been saved, which was a bit of a gutter for her. 

I went up next with a different pilot, and thankfully, a different GoPro. The view from up there was amazing, a birds eye view of the city and all the hills surrounding it. We were up for about half an hour when he asked if I wanted him to do some tricks? I instantly agreed and he immediately started swooping and twisting to the chorus of my screams. 

We tried to land after that but, the wind had died down so much that my pilot, Alejandro, was struggling to gain the height again to land at the top of the hill. We stayed out for another hour and a half before he finally decided to try and land half way up the hill instead. I definitely got my money's worth and I also got to help pack up (and carry back) the parachute which was an experience.  Poor Kay had to wait all that time for me and had only been told that I would probably be landing in the city instead. We had made plans before that if this happened to either of us, we would just make our own way back to the hostel, but luckily for me, Kay decided to wait it out - she had my bag with all my money in it! 

We went for a few drinks that night with some people from our hostel. We started at a hostel close by for a couple, where we also met up with some American guys we'd met at the paragliding, before heading to a club. We later went to a bar where they were playing salsa music, and I got free salsa lessons from some locals. After the clubs shut we went back to the 'park' to carry on drinking. Every city in Colombia seems to have a square in town where everyone, locals and tourists alike, congregate to have pre and post club drinks. We stayed there until the very very early hours of the morning. 

The next day was the inevitable write off. 

We booked a tour to a place close by called Guatape, it's a lovely colonial town with a lake and also a huge rock that they've made into a view point with over 700 steps to the top. We started out day bright and early as Guatape is a couple of hours drive away. We were first to be picked up and found out very quickly that we had inadvertently booked ourselves on a tour with a Spanish speaking guide who had little to no English. She gestured that we would just need to look at the things she pointed at but it was obvious we weren't going to be able to get any information, which was a shame. She did luckily mange to find someone on the tour who could speak some English and he was then forced to be our interpreter for the day. 

We started the tour by going on a boat trip around the man made lake. I know that they flooded the town in order to create this lake but I have no idea why. There are a lot of nice houses up on the hills surrounding the lake and, again, I can't be sure, but I think she was pointing out famous people's homes. A bit like lake Como or something...kinda. 

We then went to have lunch, and after lunch, we climbed the 700+ steps to the top of the rock/view point and were greeted with a wonderful view of  the lake. ( see pic below)

It was then off to Guatape town where we were given some time to wander around and our lovely interpreter did his best to keep us in the loop. 

We managed to book ourselves onto what has been described as the best walking tour in all of South America for the following day and we weren't disappointed. We spent 4 hours waking around medellin where we were shown the sights but also given loads of interesting information about the history of Colombia and medellin which used to be the most murderous city in the world but you would have no idea of that now. 

We left Medellin that evening on a very expensive, albeit very luxurious, night bus to Cartagena. It wasn't until after this bus that we found out that it is usually cheaper to fly in Colombia than taking the bus. 

We arrived at the bus station in the morning and took a local bus into Cartagena. We managed to get to the hostel using the sketchy directions they had given to us and also getting a bit of help from some Mexican guys who were on the bus with us. They did abandon us at one point but thankfully, and weirdly, we bumped into the couple who had helped us in our hour of need all the way back in Panama City airport. Our guardian angels it would seem! 

The hostel was lovely, clean and modern, they also gave us a refreshing cold beer to have while our beds were being made up. We spent the day with an English guy from our dorm walking around the wall which surrounds the city. 

The next day we went and did a walking tour of the city with an Australian couple and a German girl who were staying at our hostel too. It was really good but not a patch on the one we'd done in Medellin. 

We decided the next day to get out of the city and go to a beach called Playa del Blanca which wasn't too far away by local bus. Myself, Kay and the Australian couple spent the day lounging on the beach, having some drinks, and being harassed by local ladies who wanted to give us massages or put braids in our hair. We managed to catch one of the tourist boats back to the city and on our way back to the hostel we saw an amazing dance competition going on. We went out for drinks that night with some people from our hostel, we all started at the park/square for our pre drinks and got to see some of the dancers from earlier in the day strutting their stuff and also a voluptuous drag queen who was belting out Mariah Carry songs for us.  We then all headed for the famous salsa bar called Havana Club, who claim to make the best mojitos in Colombia. The place was cram packed with people trying to get their salsa on, and the mojitos weren't all that, so after a while we decided to head to another club. We danced the night away at the second club and then finished our night where it had all began - in the "park" with everyone else in Cartagena. 

The next day was quite quiet, we spent the day with the German girl from our room, Dominika, and wandered the lovely streets of the old town in Cartagena. 

Myself, Kay and Dominika left the next day and made our way up to a small village outside Santa Marta, called Taganga. We left bright and early but waited over an hour for one of the shuttle buses to the bus station. We eventually gave up and walked back a bit and got a local bus in a few seconds. When we arrived at the bus station we were ushered off our bus and straight onto another local bus which would take us to Santa Marta, or so we thought anyway, but it actually only took us half way before we were chucked off, and onto another bus. We did arrive in Taganga  around dinner time thankfully and checked into our hostel. Kay and I had booked a private room which turned out to be in a different building  a wee bit up from the main hostel, the wifi didn't work, but it was nice to have our own space for a few nights. We had some cheap but delicious Mexican tacos from a street vendor for dinner and then had a quiet night. 

We met a nice American guy while having breakfast at the hostel and he later came for lunch with the three of us. We all went for the grilled fish set lunch, which was soup for starter, a different type of tasty grilled fish each, coconut rice, salad, plantain and homemade lemonade, all that for about £2.50. We then all walked over the hill to another beach which was supposedly nicer that the one in the village, but I personally couldn't see any difference. We spent the day there and then wandered back over to the village to have more yummy street food for dinner and then helped the American guy drink a bottle of rum that he couldn't take on a flight with him the next day. 

Myself, Kay and Dominika went to Tayrona national park the following day and spent the night there in hammocks. We had hoped to use our now expired student I.D's to get us into the park for cheap but the guy behind the desk was the first person ever, to really scrutinise them. He was having none of our "it's only the credit card that has expired, we're still students" chat. The park was absolutely stunning, we had our pick of beautiful white Caribbean beaches which were only a short twenty minute walk from each other. We spent our first day at the closest beach that you were allowed to swim at, and only ventured back to our accommodation when the sun set. Myself and Kay had a bit of a mis communication which resulted in us only taking half the money we had planned to. Luckily, we had brought a load of food and water with us so we managed on what we had...just. 

We ventured a bit further the next day and walked about an hour away to one of the most spectacular beaches I have ever seen. I could have lived out the rest of my days on those beaches but my back wouldn't have taken another night in a hammock so we left late afternoon and made our way back to Taganga. 

Now that we knew that flights were so cheap, Kay and I took a flight the next afternoon from Santa Marta down to the capital, Bogota. What a temperature shock that was! It had dropped to about 10 degrees at night which was not nice. We shared a taxi from the airport with two English guys who it transpired, were fresh out of high school. One of them was asking us for tips on getting a job in the corporate world. I'm not entirely sure what he thought Kay and I did that we could help in that matter, maybe we just seemed very old to them?!

We checked into our hostel and they made us a lovely cup of sugarcane tea and showed us where we would get really good pizza for dinner. We were invited out for drinks with some Koreans that were staying in our room but we were pretty tired, and freezing, so decided to get under the covers and watch programs on YouTube instead. 

We went on a graffiti tour the next day which was really good! The graffiti artists there are so talented. After the tour we had some lunch and then retraced our steps so that we could take pictures without having 30 people in the way. When we were heading out for dinner that night, we bumped into Dominika, she had arrived that morning and was staying in the hostel next door to ours. 

The weather in Bogota is so annoying, one minute it's clouded over and freezing, and the next minute the sun is out, 3 layers of clothing are striped off and sun cream is needed, but 5 minutes later the layers will be back on because it's clouded over an freezing again. 

We took the cable car up to the top of Monserrat hill where we got an amazing view of all of Bogota. We went for a really nice Middle eastern meal that night which consisted of chicken shawarma with rice, falafel, hummus and paprika chips...yum!! 

The next day was Sunday which meant that everything was shut and there was nothing to do.  We had a nice lie in and then did a bit of shopping in the afternoon. We left for the bus station about 9pm for our bus to Armenia where we would get another bus to Salento in the morning. 

We arrived in Armenia at 4am which was a bit earlier than expected. I went for some breakfast and got speaking to a nice Colombian guy who had come off our bus too. He kindly showed us where we would catch the bus to Salento and we were on our way by 5am.  We were thankfully able to check into our hostel at that time and after a second breakfast and some lovely coffee we were able to have a wee nap. We just caught the owners leaving when we arrived but they left their 3 very capable sons in charge. The one checking us in was hilarious, it's quite a feat to not only speak another language fluently, but to have a sense of humour in that language too! We slept until lunch time and then went to a cute wee vegetarian place for lunch. We walked around the lovely town in the afternoon and then walked up some steps to a view point. We got chatting to a Colombian who had moved to Germany and was just back on holiday to visit family and friends. He tried to engage us in some conversational Spanish so that we could practice but our Spanish really wasn't good enough for that. We can get by with what we have but that's about it. We went to a place called Brunch for dinner, it had been highly recommended to us by Zoe, who we'd met at San Blas. She told us that we had to try the peanut butter milkshake but by the time I finished my enormous burger and chips there was no way I was going to fit anything else in. 

We took a 'Willy' the next day to a national park close by called Cocora. The trek was only 13km but it took us 6 hours to complete the whole thing. We stopped for quite some time at a hummingbird sanctuary where we had some hot chocolate and attempted to take pictures of the beautiful hummingbirds. Probably over 100 photos were taken and I only managed to get one or two decent ones. The only difficult part of the trek was the the last 1km to the top of the hill where it suddenly got very steep! The walk back down the other side was nice and easy since it was all down hill, this was the part with all the huge rubber palm trees. We took a Willy back into Salento and went for some dinner and well deserved early night. 

We did a coffee plantation tour the next day after checking out. We walked the 3km down into the valley to the plantation. The tour was really good, they showed us the whole process from planting to roasting. I even got to plant my own coffee seedling and we got to try our hand at picking the cherries. We got to have a cup of the coffee at the end of the tour but I actually didn't enjoy it very much, I think it was too smooth for my taste. After leaving the plantation we saw some horses tied up, presumably the transport of someone on a tour. We asked if we could take them back to Salento because we couldn't be bothered walking all the way back up the hill. It was a really great hour long ride which was made all the better by the fact that both our horses wanted to be in front. Any time Kay's came near mine it would start cantering away. After getting back to the hostel we found out that the journey to Cali only took 3hrs and not 7 like our book had told us. This scuppered our plan to do an overnight bus and so we just stayed put for one more night. 

The next morning we were up with the birds to catch the first bus to Armenia and from there managed to get a bus quickly to Cali. It wasn't a long wait there either before we were on our final bus to Ipiales which is the small town at the border. It was only supposed to take 8hrs from Cali but it ended up taking almost 12 hours which meant we arrived at midnight. We would be crossing the border the next morning into the 12th country of our trip, Ecuador. I was very sad to be leaving Colombia but I had already decided that I would definitely be back, and soon!

Panama

Some people are just not suited to staying in dorms and I can't get my head around why, if they can't sleep through a little noise, they don't just do everyone a favour and get a private room. We encountered one of these types on our first night in Panama. We had landed in Panama City quite late and it was probably around 10pm when we were checking into our hostel. The guy showing us our room, switched on the lights so that he could point out our beds to us. Almost as soon as he vacated the room some very rude 'gentleman' popped his head out of the fortress he'd made for himself on the lower bunk using towels and sheets, and started gibbering away to us in Spanish. Having only spent a mere couple of hours in our first Spanish speaking country, he was given a couple of perplexed looks from Kay and I, who had not one clue what he was going on about. Not to be put of by this, he continued to talk to us in Spanish until I remembered one of my only Spanish phrases, "No hablo Español". He quickly switched tongue to English and told us to switch off the light. Ok, I told him, and then turned towards my bag as he disappeared back into his fortress. Less than 30 seconds later his ugly little head was peering through again demanding that the light be turned off. I understand that people need to sleep, and particularly if they are getting up early, which he wasn't FYI, but people also need to be able to get ready for bed when they've just checked in. This wasn't our only encounter with the man unfortunately, he would also tell us to be quiet if we had the audacity to speak in our room at 3 in the afternoon. I mean, how very dare we?! Get a room to yourself or invest in an eye mask and ear plugs, which are priceless commodities to anyone travelling and staying in dorm rooms. 

Panama

We spent our first day in Panama City figuring out a plan for our time in Panama and also deciding how we would get from Panama to Colombia. We had been told that the only options were to take a sailing boat, which took you first through the Caribbean San Blas Islands and then another two or three days sailing to Cartagena in Colombia, or to fly. We were told that both options would cost roughly the same and so before we arrived we decided the boat trip was a better option.  We got talking to some fellow travellers at our hostel who told us that there was actually a third option, this would be to do a two or three day trip to the San Blas Islands and then take a flight with the new low cost airline Viva Colombia. This sounded ideal because with it coming into the winter, there was a high enough chance that it wouldn't all be smooth sailing, and I didn't much like the thought of 5 days of rough seas. 

The next day we went to see the world's greatest shortcut, the Panama Canal, and spent some time walking around the old town. 

From Panama City we took an overnight bus to David and from there it was a short bus ride to a small town called Boquette which sits about 5000ft above sea level. While there we trekked to the top of Volcano Baru which is an active volcano (it hasn't erupted in over 500 years) which stands at 11,000ft. We started our trek at midnight so that we would be at the top for sunrise. We set of as a group of 9 but it wasn't long before we'd split into three smaller groups. We walked the whole way with an English guy and another guy from Germany. We spent the whole time swapping stories and keeping ourselves entertained for the 13.5km to the top. I stupidly wasn't drinking enough water and so by 8km I started to get cramp, and by 12km I was in agony with it, but I carried on none the less and we made it to the top for sunrise and were rewarded with an amazing panoramic view. We had the Atlantic sea to the East of us, the Pacific to the West and Costa Rica to the North.  If we had thought that a six hour uphill walk was tough, we were in for a treat with the 13.5km back down. The horse riding we had planned to do the following day had to be cancelled so we could spend the next day resting our weary legs. 

We spent our time in Boquette relaxing, horse riding, shopping at markets and generally just having a lovely chilled time. 

We went from there to Bocas del Toro which is a collection of islands on the Caribbean side of Panama.  We decided to stay on an island called Bastimentos which doesn't have any roads or vehicles, only one small path along the sea front.  The weather had turned a bit wild, the first night we were there it rained all night long.  It had thankfully cleared up by morning so we decided to walk over to Wizard Beach and do some sunbathing.  What was supposed to be a thirty minute walk along a dirt path turned into a slip and slide that lasted over an hour.  The heavy rain the night before had turned the path into a mud bath, we ended up taking our flip flops off and just walking through the mud in our bare feet.  We finally made it to Wizard beach, drenched after being caught in a down pour and covered in mud, to find that the tide was too far in for us to be able to walk around to the next beach, Red Frog Beach.  Wizard beach doesn't have any bars or restaurants on it and we hadn't brought any food or very much water with us, so after a quick walk along the beach with a dog that had adopted us, we had to take off our flip flops and get muddy again.  

There was an amazing thunder storm that night, the lightening was so bright and the thunder so loud, I've never experienced anything like it, it was right over our heads at one point.

We had to leave Bocas the next day having only been there for two nights, we took a taxi boat back to Isla Colon which is the main island in Bocas del Toras.  We arrived nice and early so we could spend some time there and also get to a cash machine so we could pay for our bus.  We dumped our bags at the dock and then went in search of the one and only cash machine on the Island.  We arrived at the cash machine and were greeted with and Out of Order notice, we entered the bank hoping that they could give us some cash using our bank cards, they told us that they could not issue us with any cash but assured us the ATM would be fixed between 3 and 4pm. Our boat was leaving for the main land at 5pm, where we would get a bus to Panama City.  Without any cash we wouldn't be able to pay for our bus but they told us the cash machine would definitely be fixed before then.  We headed off with the last of our money and had some lunch and a wander around Bocas town, after spending some time there we had wished that we had just stayed on the main island and taken day trips to the other islands instead.  There is no beach on the main island which was our main reason for staying elsewhere but the town has a really nice feel to it and it seems to be quite lively. We went back to the bank at 3pm sharp and when we tried to put our card in the machine, a booming voice told us "No!" from the other side of the machine, I guess they were still fixing it then.  We decided to sit outside the bank and wait patiently for it to be fixed.  We were running over our options of what we could do if they didn't fix it when sure enough, the ATM engineer came out and told us, and everyone else that had started to congregate, that the ATM wouldn't be fixed until the next day.  We were told by another backpacker that one of the local shops could give you cash back at a 10% charge and so we dashed off there, trying to beat the crowds of others needing money, but somehow took a wrong turn and ended up back at the dock.  We nipped in to the office quickly on the off chance that they would accept a card payment from us instead of cash.  They were very good about the whole thing ( I'm sure this happens a lot with there being only one cash machine) and allowed us to pay once we got to the main land, they said the taxi to the bus station would take us via an ATM...crisis averted.  

We arrived back in Panama City at the crack of dawn, got ourselves a taxi to our hostel, checked in, and then crashed out on the couches in front of the tv.  We spent the day getting ourselves ready for our trip to the San Blas islands.

The following morning we were picked up at 5am, collected 4 more Brits, all from London, and made our way to where we would get our boat to San Blas.  San Blas is a collection of 378 islands in the Caribbean and is in every way an unspoilt paradise of crystal clear waters and palm fringed white beaches. We arrived at the Island we were to spend the night on, dumped our belongings in our rooms, met some other guests who had arrived the previous day, and set off on our first island trip.  The first stop for us that day was a gorgeous uninhibited island where we all got to know each other while sunning ourselves and drinking rum. For the next stop, we were taken to an amazing sand cay where we could have a bit of a swim to cool ourselves down and there was, of course, more rum drinking. We had a nice lunch at yet another island before heading back to our own island so we could relax for the remainder of the day. The evening was spent with the four lovely Londoners, listening to music, playing drinking games and yes, you guessed it, more rum guzzling. 

The next, and our last, day was spent on yet another stunning Caribbean island where we sun bathed, had lunch and if you wanted to partake, more rum drinking. I was unfortunately feeling a tad worse for wear after all the rum the day before and so opted not to get involved. 

We left late in the afternoon and took a boat and then a very overcrowded jeep back to Panama City where we would spend one last night before flying to Colombia. 

We used Colombia's answer to Ryanair, Viva Colombia, for our flight to Medellin, Colombia. Although the flight was dirt cheap, it was one disaster after another which resulted in us almost missing our flight. Cancelled tickets with no notification, no english speaking staff at the tiny airport, no option to pay by card at the airport, a rush trip to the nearest ATM, joining the wrong queue and finally, no announcement that our flight was about to leave without us.  Yes, we were those idiots having to peg it over the runway to our awaiting flight.  Phew! Leaving beautiful Panama for one of my most highly anticipated destinations of our trip, Colombia! 

Los Angeles

We arrived at LAX in the afternoon and Nosh, our friend who you might remember we met on a train in Thailand, collected us from the airport, we were going to be staying with him and his lovely family during our stay in LA.  The two of us, Nosh, his wife Kio and their cute son Zelzen went out for dinner at a great Italian place close to their home.  When we arrived though, they advised that they were shutting soon so we ordered some very tasty pizzas to take away with us.  We ate dinner and then hit the sack, myself and Kay were exhausted after flying from Singapore and very jet lagged since we had crossed the date line and gained 15 hours during our flight.

The next morning Kio dropped us off in downtown LA where we had a nice breakfast and then took a bus to Santa Monica where we spent the day enjoying the sun at the beach. We made our way back to Downtown and Nosh collected us from there and the three of us went for dinner.  We had some awesome burgers which were enormous, none of us could finish them. My burger was sandwiched between two cheese toasties! Amazing but just too much, I had thought that because LA is so image conscious that the portion sizes wouldn't be as bad as the rest of the US but I was 100% wrong.  We had another early night as we were still very jet lagged and so neither of us had slept very well the night before.

The next day was one for being proper tourists in LA.  We started our day by doing a tour around the Hollywood hills, Beverley Hills, Rodeo Drive and West Hollywood.  I wouldn't recommend these tours as we spent most of our time being shown the houses of celebrities, which neither of us were that interested in.  We then walked around west Hollywood where we saw the Walk of Fame and also the Chinese theatre which is where all the hand prints are.  We spent the afternoon doing some shopping and then had burritos for dinner at a small Mexican place near Union station. 

On our last full day in LA we went for an amazing breakfast with Nosh and Zelzen in the morning, again, the portion sizes were so huge that Kay and I couldn't eat any lunch - we were still so full.  Myself and Kay then took a bus to Venice beach which was my favourite place in LA, there is so much to see and do, lots of cool wee shops, surfers, skaters and street performers.  

That night Nosh took drove us out to see Pasadena which is such a cute looking place, it has the look and feel of a small town even though you're in LA.  We went for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory where Penny works in The Big Bang Theory, the food and drinks were amazing.

I'm really glad that we got to stop in LA for a few days and we were very lucky that we got to see places that tourists don't normally get to see.  I won't be in a huge rush to return though, LA just isn't for me. 

Singapore

After touching down at Singapore airport and taking the underground out to our accommodation, we checked in and tried to make the most of what was left of our day.  We went to see a local market but there was a big thunder storm while we were there and so we ended up staying a lot longer than we had planned.  We had our dinner there and then decided to have an early night and get up early the next day to try and see as much of Singapore as possible. 

We headed for The Gardens on the Bay in the morning, they have huge beautiful gardens along with a cloud forest which was very impressive.  They have built some very tall flower like structures in the gardens and you can go up to a canopy walkway which connects two of them.  It's all very futuristic looking.

We spent most of our day there and then went to China Town for some dinner.  We went back to the bay side after the sunset so that we could watch the light shows that they put on every night.  When we arrived, everyone was sitting outside the shopping centre but we thought that it would be a rubbish place to stand for a good view.  So, in our wisdom, we left the crowd and walked further around the bay to where we thought we would get a good view, we were wrong...very wrong.  We walked through the shopping centre to the second light show of the night, at the gardens, and then made it back in time to watch the first light show again, this time from the right place!

Singapore is such an amazing city and it was a shame we only had one and a bit days there.  It's not anywhere near as expensive as people say and so I would recommend to anyone travelling in that area to spend a few days there.